Start a Conversation

This post is more than 5 years old

Solved!

Go to Solution

9056

June 25th, 2015 14:00

"The Dumpster" Dimension E521

Recently found an E521 in a dumpster. It's missing the hard drive. I temporarily placed a SATA drive from an old eMachines unit into it and the thing at least starts. My question involves putting a new drive into The Dumpster so my father can surf the net and mess around with his email. I would like to put in a small SSD to boot the beast and use his existing eMachines drive for storage. What do I need to look for as far as specs for the SSD? I see SATA 3, mSATA, etc...


Any help all y'all can provide would be greatly appreciated.

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

June 25th, 2015 15:00

ph37rd

Any SSD 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) will work in the Dimension E521, for a boot drive, best to buy a 250gb+- SSD, similar to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148945

You will need an 24" SATA data cable, there should a spare SATA power connector already inside the case, for a second SATA drive, plus a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor is required to mount the drive, similar to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817997037

Bev.

Edit.  A thought, you might need a Dell 3.5" hard drive caddy, if not already provided:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-390-E310-E510-E520-E521-3100-5100-5150-9100-Caddy-GJ617-RJ824-KM503-PERFECT/301664262592?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20141212152715%26meid%3D03a76145793b460798137bb8f9dfff74%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D28%26sd%3D140524228852

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

June 25th, 2015 20:00

ph37rd

Bev.

6 Posts

June 25th, 2015 20:00

They left all the caddies in place, just took out the HDD. Placed an order on http://smile.amazon.com for an SSD, the 2.5 to 3.5 adapter and cable. Also added the internal memory card reader and USB keyboard. Probably spent more than The Dumpster is worth, but will make the 87 year old kid happy...

No Events found!

Top